Past forest use often has a long-term negative impact on the recovery of the original plant composition of semi-natural grasslands, which are known as a legacy effect. This study investigates the impact of seed dispersal limitations on the restoration of grassland plant diversity on ski slopes with past forest use, highlighting the negative legacy effect on biodiversity recovery. Focusing on ski areas, our research contrasts the vegetation on ski slopes originally created on semi-natural grasslands such as pasture (pasture slopes) and constructed by clearing secondary forests or conifer plantations (forest slopes). We examined species richness and abundance, considering seed dispersal mechanisms, grassland management history and seed source proximity. We reveal that the proximity to species-rich grassland sources and sustained management for more than 50 years are pivotal for the restoration of native grassland vegetation. Particularly, wind-dispersed species show significant recovery on slopes with a history of extensive grassland management, suggesting that both the duration of management and the proximity to seed sources are critical for overcoming the legacy effects of past forest use. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering seed dispersal dynamics and management history in the restoration and conservation of grasslands and their biodiversity, particularly in landscapes experiencing past human intervention.

Ireland and Britain are two islands located at Europe’s westernmost edge, both of which act as the final breeding outposts for many bird species within their European ranges. Despite their similar geographic locations and geological histories, Ireland and Britain host different breeding avifauna assemblages. Diversity profiles, which can serve as more robust alternatives to classic diversity indices, were employed in this study to explore disparities in the two islands’ breeding avifauna assemblages. Variations in assemblages were explored, along with their potential drivers, through analyses at three levels: island-scale breeding bird assemblage compositions, island-scale diversity profiles considering 49 common breeding species, and habitat-specific diversity profiles considering assemblages in east/central Irish farmland and East Anglian farmland. Analysis of the two islands’ breeding avifauna assemblages revealed that the Irish assemblage is a complete subset of the British assemblage. Analyses of Irish and British assemblages at both an island scale and a habitat scale revealed patterns linking land use to trends within the two islands’ avifauna assemblages. Irish assemblages contained greater proportions of insectivorous farmland species by abundance, while British assemblages contained greater proportions of seed-eating farmland species; both trends appeared to be related to structural differences in agricultural land use on the two islands. The British and East Anglian assemblages exhibited higher diversity across all analyses, which appeared to be driven by the assemblages’ higher relative abundances of species that were most genetically distinct. This study highlights the ability of diversity profiles to impart more information than classic diversity indices by incorporating species similarity data.

Many social insect species build nests, which strongly differ from the surrounding environment and are often occupied by specific organismal communities. In temperate forests, red wood ants (e.g. Formica polyctena) are known to create such distinct, highly developed nests, which consist of large, above-ground mounds. Those structures are built primarily out of plant matter collected from the forest litter. Common fungal dwellers of forest litter are representatives of Mucoromycota, engaged in the decomposition process of this substrate. However, data on co-occurrence or interactions between these ants and fungi remains unknown. In order to elucidate these interactions we characterized Mucoromycota communities of Formica polyctena nests and the surrounding forest litter. We sampled four sites, twice in a season and used: a culturomics approach, complemented with DNA barcoding to describe fungal communities; PERMANOVA test and non-metric multidimensional scaling ordinations to compare those communities; and multilevel pattern analysis to indicate taxa associated with the mounds. Our results show that the Mucoromycota community of Formica polyctena’s mound is specific and more stable than the community of the surrounding forest litter. While representatives of Entomortierella lignicola and Absidia cylindrospora clade were found to be associated with the mound environment, representatives of Umbelopsis curvata and Podila verticillata-humilis clade were associated with forest litter, and were rarely present in the mounds. Our findings strongly suggest that the red wood ants’ nest is a specific microenvironment in the temperate forest floor, which is a preferred microhabitat for the mound-associated Mucoromycota, possibly adapted to live in close proximity to ants.

Invasive omnivores may have profound impacts on ecological communities through diet selection, particularly when their functional roles differ from those in their native range. While the threat of feral pigs (Sus scrofa) to native plant communities in Hawai‘i are well known, their trophic dynamics and the drivers of variation in their diet remain understudied. We investigated the feral pig dietary niche on Hawai‘i Island using stable isotopes (13C and 15N) and Bayesian mixing models to identify drivers of variation in resource use. We also chronologically reconstructed diets for six subsampled individuals to understand temporal variation in resource use and individual diet specialization. Our results revealed feral pigs on Hawai‘i Island exhibit a broad dietary niche characterized by diverse diets, with substantial overlap in resource use across districts and habitats. Differences in dietary composition in the transition from forest to open habitat were driven primarily by an increasing reliance on human food subsidies in conjunction with a decreasing reliance on invertebrates, which may be partially driven by protein constraints on dietary composition. Pigs in forested areas largely displayed generalist feeding strategies, while those in open habitat tended to specialize, particularly on human food resources. Diets for chronologically subsampled individuals varied little, suggesting feral pig resource-use strategies in Hawai‘i tend to be stable through time. Individual niche-width was relatively narrow compared to that of feral pigs in Hawai‘i at large, indicating the relatively wide feral pig dietary niche is characterized by substantial intraspecific diet specialization, likely as a result of strong intraspecific competition. Understanding the drivers of feral pig resource use is crucial for informing management strategies aimed at mitigating their ecological impacts in imperiled systems like Hawai‘i.

The oceanographic conditions of the Southern California Bight (SCB) dictate the distribution and abundance of prey resources and therefore the presence of mobile predators, such as Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris). Cuvier’s beaked whales are deep-diving odontocetes that spend a majority of their time foraging at depth. Due to their cryptic behavior, little is known about how they respond to seasonal and interannual changes in their environment. This study utilizes passive acoustic data recorded from two sites within the SCB to explore the oceanographic conditions that Cuvier’s beaked whales appear to favor. Utilizing optimum multiparameter analysis, modeled temperature and salinity data are used to identify and quantify these source waters: Pacific Subarctic Upper Water (PSUW), Pacific Equatorial Water (PEW), and Eastern North Pacific Central Water (ENPCW). The interannual and seasonal variability in Cuvier’s beaked whale presence was related to the variability in El Niño Southern Oscillation events and the fraction and vertical distribution of the three source waters. Cuvier’s beaked whale acoustic presence was highest during the winter and spring and decreased during the late summer and early fall. These seasonal increases occurred at times of increased fractions of PEW in the California Undercurrent and decreased fractions of ENPCW in surface waters. Interannual increases in Cuvier’s beaked whale presence occurred during El Niño events. These results establish a baseline understanding of the oceanographic characteristics that correlate with Cuvier’s beaked whale presence in the SCB. Furthering our knowledge of this elusive species is key to understanding how anthropogenic activities impact Cuvier’s beaked whales.

Identifying the processes underlying community assembly and dynamics remains a central goal in ecology. Although much research has been devoted to analyzing how environmental changes affect patterns of trait and species diversity among communities and ecosystems, few studies have resolved the link between fundamental processes, species diversity and trait distributions. It has been suggested that identifying ecological selection on functional traits may provide insight into more general rules of community assembly. In this study, we asked whether and how selection determines species and trait diversity, and how this is determined by the initial community-weighted variance (CWV) and mean (CWM) for traits governing species interactions, as in our case: competitiveness and defense against a predator. We tracked experimental 5-species phytoplankton communities in the presence and absence of a rotifer predator. The communities had at least 3 of the 5 species in common, but differed in CWV and CWM for defense against predation. We found that species diversity was only maintained in the presence of the predator, but that species diversity was highest with higher initial trait distributions and that temporal changes in diversity correlated with trait selection. For low or higher initial distributions, we found early directional selection for defense and competitiveness, followed by reduced selection and an increase in niche availability. For intermediate initial trait distributions, we observed initial directional selection in only one trait followed by stabilizing selection. We attribute changes in selection for defense and competitiveness, and thus species diversity, to changes in predator density, which were more dynamically stable for communities with higher trait diversity. Overall, our results suggest that the initial trait distribution determined species diversity through a feedback loop with changes in selection on traits and predator density.

Globally, biodiversity is at risk of extinction, and megadiverse countries become key targets for conservation. South Africa, the only country hosting three biodiversity hotspots, harbours tremendous diversity of at-risk species deserving to be protected. However, the lengthy risk assessment process and the lack of required data to complete assessments is a serious limitation to conservation since several species may slide into extinction while awaiting risk assessment. Here, we employed deep neural network model integrating species climatic and geographic features to predict the conservation status of 116 unassessed plant species. Our analysis involved in total 1072 plant species and 112 066 occurrence points. The best-performing model exhibits high accuracy, reaching up to 83.6% at the binary classification and 56.8% at the detailed classification. Our best-performing model predicts that 32% and 8% of Data Deficient and Not-Evaluated species are likely threatened, respectively, amounting to a proportion of 24.1% of unassessed species facing a risk of extinction. Interestingly, all unassessed species predicted to be threatened are in protected areas, revealing the effectiveness of the South Africa’s network of protected areas in conservation, although these likely threatened species are more abundant outside protected areas. Considering the limitation in assessing only species with available data, there remains a possibility of a higher proportion of unassessed species being imperiled.

The genus Encephalartos is entirely endemic to Africa. Like most cycad species, the genus is at risk of extinction. One of the threats jeopardizing the future of the genus is reproduction failure. Our objective is to investigate what predisposes Encephalartos species to reproduction failure. We collected functional traits of 430 individuals of Encephalartos villosus, including pre-dispersal seed predation and habitat types and elevation in Origi Gorge Nature Reserve in South Africa. Then, we analysed our data by fitting a structural equation model (SEM). Surprisingly, elevation does not predict pre-dispersal seed predations, adding to the inconsistent effects of elevation on seed predation. However, there was evidence of more predated seeds on plants with more leaves, fitting the patterns of resource concentration hypothesis which predicts more insect herbivores, particularly specialist herbivores, where food resources (e.g., leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds) are abundant. We also found that more predated seeds are in open habitats, perhaps mirroring the specialist feeding behaviour of the weevil Antliarhinus zamiae feeding on the seeds of Encephalartos spp. Furthermore, taller plants tend to bear more predated seeds, potentially because taller plants are easy located by the weevil. Finally, large canopy correlates negatively with predated seeds, mirroring our finding of increased seed predation in open habitats. Our SEM explains 67% of the variations in pre-dispersal seed predations, suggesting that this metamodel provides insights into the predisposition of cycad seed to predations. Since open habitats correlate with more seed predation, we suggest that anthropogenic activities that contribute to open forest must be avoided if we are to limit seed predations.

Asparagus cochinchinensis is a member of the Asparagaceae family whose medicinal part is the dried root tuber. The distribution of A. cochinchinensis and its secondary metabolites are closely associated with environmental factors, such as climate and soil properties. By establishing and optimizing a maximum entropy model, we analyzed and predicted the distribution pattern and migration direction of suitable habitats for A. cochinchinensis and determined the main environmental factors affecting the accumulation of secondary metabolites. Under current climatic conditions, the area of suitable habitats for A. cochinchinensis (208.38 × 104 km2) accounts for 21.71% of the land area of China. Under future climate scenarios, the total area of suitable habitats hardly changes. The area of highly suitable habitats significantly decreases under the SSP1-RCP2.6 and SSP3-RCP7 scenarios but eventually increases under the SSP5-RCP8.5 scenario, which indicates that A. cochinchinensis might adapt better to a high-carbon-emissions scenario. Under different climate scenarios, low-impact areas mainly occur in southern China. Highly suitable habitats primarily occur in the southeastern Sichuan Basin, northern Guangxi, eastern Guizhou, and western Hunan. The total contents of saponins and polysaccharides in A. cochinchinensis were significantly, but oppositely, correlated with temperature, precipitation, and other factors. This study has identified environmental factors affecting the growth and quality of A. cochinchinensis, which has guiding significance for resource conservation and site selection for large-scale cultivation.

1. Temperature is commonly acknowledged as one of the primary forces driving ectotherm vector populations, most notably by influencing metabolic rates and survival. Although numerous experiments have shown this for a wide variety of organisms, the vast majority has been conducted at constant temperatures and changes therein, while temperature is far from constant in nature, and includes seasonal and diurnal cycles. As fluctuating temperatures have been described to affect metabolic processes at (sub)cellular level, this calls for studies evaluating the relative importance of temperature fluctuations and the changes therein. 2. To gain insight in the effects of temperature fluctuations on ectotherm development, survival, and sex-ratio, we developed an inexpensive, easily reproducible, and open-source, Arduino-based temperature control system, which emulates natural sinusoidal fluctuations around the average temperature. We used this novel setup to compare the effects of constant (mean) temperatures, most commonly used in experiments, block schemes and natural sinusoidal fluctuations as well as an extreme variant with twice its amplitude using the cosmopolitan mosquito species Culex pipiens s.l. as a study organism. 3. Our system accurately replicated the preprogrammed temperature treatments under outdoor conditions, even more accurately than traditional methods. While no effects were detected on survival and sex-ratio within the ranges of variation evaluated, development was sped up considerably by including temperature fluctuations, especially during pupation, where development under constant temperatures took almost a week (30%) longer than under natural fluctuations. Doubling the amplitude further decreased development time by 1.5 days. 4. These results highlight the importance of including (natural) oscillations in experiments on ectotherm organisms – both aquatic and terrestrial – that use temperature as a variable. Ultimately, these results have major repercussions for downstream effects at larger scales that may be studied with applications such as ecological niche models, disease risk models and assessing ecosystem services that rely on ectotherm organisms.

To conserve wide-ranging species in human-modified landscapes, it is essential to understand how the behavior of animals changes in relation to the degree and composition of modification. Evidence suggests that large inter-individual variation exists in the propensity for use of human-modified areas and may be driven by both behavioral and landscape factors. The use of agriculture lands by wildlife is of particular interest, given the importance of reducing human-wildlife conflicts and understanding how such areas can function as biodiversity buffers. African elephant space use can be highly influenced by human activity and the degree to which individuals crop-raid. We analyzed GPS data from 56 free-ranging elephants in the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem using resource selection functions (RSFs) to assess how crop use may drive patterns of resource selection and space use within a population. We quantified drivers of similarity in resource selection across individuals using proximity analysis of individual RSF coefficients derived from random forest models. We found wide variation in RSF coefficient values between individuals indicating strongly differentiated resource selection strategies. Proximity assessment indicated the degree of crop use in the dry season, individual repeatability, and time spent in unprotected areas drove similarity in resource selection patterns. Crop selection was also spatially structured in relation to agricultural fragmentation. In areas with high fragmentation, elephants spent more time in crops and selected most strongly for crops in areas close to the protected area boundary, but in areas with low fragmentation elephants spent half as much time in crops and selected most strongly for crops further from protected area boundaries. Our results highlight how individual differences and landscape structure can both shape use of agricultural landscapes. We discuss our results in respect to the conservation challenges of human-elephant conflict and incorporating behavioral variation into human-wildlife coexistence efforts.

During mammalian terrestrial locomotion, body flexibility facilitated by the vertebral column is correlated with observed modes of locomotion, known as gait (e.g., sprawl, trot, hop, bound, gallop). In small-to-medium sized mammals (average weight up to 5 kg), the relationship between locomotive mode and vertebral morphology is largely unexplored. Here we studied the vertebral column from 46 small-to-medium sized mammals. Nine vertebrae across cervical, thoracic, and lumbar region were chosen to represent the whole vertebral column. Vertebra shape was analysed using three-dimensional geometric morphometrics with phylogenetic comparative method. We also applied the multi-block method, which can consider all vertebrae as a single structure for analysis. We calculated morphological disparity, phylogenetic signal, and evaluated the effects of allometry and gait on vertebral shape. We also investigated pattern of integration in the column. We found the cervical vertebrae show the highest degree of morphological disparity, and the first thoracic vertebra shows the highest phylogenetic signal. A significant effect of gait type on vertebrae shape was found, with the lumbar vertebrae having the strongest correlation; but this effect was not significant after taking phylogeny into account. On the other hand, allometry has a significant effect on all vertebrae regardless of the contribution from phylogeny. The regions showed differing degrees of integration, with cervical vertebrae most strongly correlated. With these results, we have revealed novel information that cannot be captured from study of a single vertebra alone: although the lumbar vertebrae are the most correlated with gait, the cervical vertebrae are more morphologically diverse and more drive the diversity among species when considering whole column shape.

The mountains in the Atlantic Forest domain are environments that harbor a high biodiversity, including species adapted to colder climates that were probably influenced by the climatic variations of the Pleistocene. To understand the phylogeographic pattern and assess the taxonomic boundaries between two sister montane species, a genomic study of the butterflies Actinote mantiqueira and A. alalia (Nymphalidae: Acraeini) was conducted. Analyses based on the COI barcode region failed to recover any phylogenetic or genetic structure discriminating the two species or sampling localities. However, SNPs gathered using GBS provided a strong isolation pattern in all analyses (genetic distance, phylogenetic hypothesis, clustering analyses, and FST statistics) that is consistent with morphology, separating all individuals of A. alalia from all populations of A. mantiqueira. The three sampled mountain ranges where A. mantiqueira populations occur — Serra do Mar, Serra da Mantiqueira, and Poços de Caldas Plateau — were identified as three isolated clusters. Paleoclimate simulations indicate that both species’ distributions changed according to climatic oscillations in the Pleistocene period, with the two species potentially occurring in areas of lower altitude during glacial periods when compared to the interglacial periods (as the present). Besides, a potential path between their distribution through the Serra do Mar Mountain range was inferred. Therefore, the Pleistocene climatic fluctuation had a significant impact on the speciation process between A. alalia and A. mantiqueira, which was brought on by isolation at different mountain summits during interglacial periods, as shown by the modeled historical distribution and the observed genetic structure.

The relationships among developmental stability, canalization and phenotypic plasticity are not straightforward, but may be better understood in the context of temporally heterogeneous environments. Our objective was to investigate the effects of early experience with temporally heterogeneous water availability on the associations between developmental stability, canalization and phenotypic plasticity. We subjected eight plant species to a first round of alternating inundation and drought vs. constantly moderate water treatments and a second round of water conditions. Fluctuating asymmetry (FA), intra- and inter-individual variation (CVintra and CVinter), and plasticity in traits were measured and correlations between variables were calculated for each species. Early temporally heterogeneous experience decreased the leaf size of half of the species, but had complex effects on leaf fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and inter-individual variation (CVinter) in traits immediately or in late conditions, with little effects on intra-individual variation (CVintra). There were several positive correlations between FA and CVinter, positive correlations between CVinter and plasticity in early treatments, but negative correlations in late treatments. Our results suggested complexity and variability in the relationships between different mechanisms. Decreased canalization may promote plastic responses in traits before or during the induction of plasticity, whereas canalization may reflect phenotypic convergence after plastic responses. Temporally heterogeneous experiences may facilitate positive correlations or attenuate negative correlations between decreased canalization and plasticity. We provide direct evidence for relationships between developmental stability, canalization and plasticity as well as the role of temporally heterogeneous environments in modifying these processes. The integrative way that plants deal with environmental variation demonstrates their ability to evolve in multiple directions via many flexible adjustments in response to varying environmental signals over a plant’s lifetime.

Bees and moths are globally important pollinators. Xeric barrens in the largely mesic northeastern USA support high levels of pollinator diversity, including rare bees and moths. We investigated the response of bee vs moth communities to abiotic and vegetation drivers in barrens across the region. We sampled environment, vegetation, bees, and moths for 2-4 years in 20 preserves. Employing random forest analysis, we tested the role of 26 abiotic and vegetation predictors of bee vs moth abundance, species richness, Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index, evenness, and species composition. Variables related to climate, canopy cover, and soils were the most important predictors of abundance, diversity, and species composition for both bees and moths. Vegetation variables, such as species richness of shrubs and hostplants, were also important for bees. The direction of these relationships contrasted sharply between bees and moths: bees were more abundant and species rich in more open, sandy sites and moths the opposite. Surprisingly, bee-moth contrasts in diversity did not hold for Shannon-Wiener Diversity. Habitat preferences for a subset of moth xeric specialists were much more similar to bees than to other moths, with a preference for open, sandy conditions. Contrasts between bees and moths in habitat preferences likely stemmed from differences in life history: bees rely on flowers for feeding and porous substrates for nesting, whereas most moth adults rely on flowers but many moth caterpillars use woody plants as hosts. The contrast between bees and moths for species richness vs. Shannon-Wiener Diversity raises important general questions about the conservation value of these two metrics. Our results suggest that, because of differences in habitat preferences among pollinators, barrens management for spatial and temporal heterogeneity is likely to promote the highest abundance and diversity of resident pollinator communities.

1. Widely used methods to assess population genetic structure and differentiation rely on independence of marker loci. Following the assumption, the common metrics, for example FST, evaluate genetic structure by averaging across loci. Common metrics do not use information in the associations among loci at the individual level and are often criticized for failing to measure true differentiation even when loci segregate independently. 2. We introduce a new concept to measure β-variation (Effective Number of Different Populations, ENDP). It requires the following steps: (a) calculation of a proper dissimilarity between genetic profiles of all individuals; (b) calculation of suitable pairwise distances between the samples based on the dissimilarities between individuals; (c) calculation of diversity (in terms of Hill numbers) and dispersion of samples based on the pairwise distances between samples; (d) ENDP is then estimated as a combination of the diversity and dispersion. ENDP estimates β-variation independently of within-sample α-variation. This new concept differs from the existing standard where β-diversity is estimated based on the ‘partition of variation’ scheme (beta=gamma-alpha or beta=gamma/alpha). 3. Estimates of ENDP are obtained by evaluating information in the available genetic profiles of individuals including association of loci. Therefore, ENDP can be used even in an absence of panmixia. 4. We illustrate the use of this concept by analyzing the population genetic structure of a sexual species (a trematode parasite) occupying connected populations across a broad geographic area. Analysis is complicated by two coexisting cryptic sister clades and the potentially mixed-mating system of this hermaphroditic parasite.

Copepods are one of the most abundant invertebrate groups in the seas and oceans and are a significant food source for marine animals. Copepods are also particularly sensitive to elevated temperatures. However, it is relatively unknown the role of the internal microbiome in shaping copepod susceptibility to warming. We addressed this fundamental knowledge gap by assessing key life history traits (survival, development, reproduction), and changes in the internal microbiome in the tropical calanoid copepod Acartia sp. in response to warming (26, 30, and 34°C). Copepod microbiomes were analyzed using high throughput DNA sequencing of V1–V9 of 16S rRNA hypervariable regions. Copepod performance was better at 30°C than at 26°C as indicated by higher survival, faster growth rate and development, and higher fecundity. However, these parameters strongly decreased at 34°C. We recorded 1,262,987 amplicon sequence reads, corresponding to 392 total operational taxonomic units at 97% similarity. The copepod microbiomes contained Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, Actinobacteria, and Acidobacteria. Importantly, the internal microbiota biodiversity was strongly reduced at higher temperatures. The highest number of OTUs was obtained at 26°C (126/392 OTUs), and the lowest was at 34°C (31/392 OTUs). The thermophilic Proteobacteria was dominant under elevated temperatures (30°C and 34°C). At 34°C, Vibrio accounted for 70% of bacterial species in copepods. The reduced OTUs number with an increased relative abundance of Vibrio seemed to be related to the reduced copepod growth and survival. Profiling the functional role of all internal bacterial groups as a function of the temperature change will fundamentally advance our mechanistic understanding of the performance of tropical copepods and, more generally, marine invertebrates to a warming climate.

Mountains play a crucial role in shaping the climate of an area and subsequently, the habitat and species that are suited to those particular conditions. Understanding the relationships between environmental conditions and their influence on the occurrence of a species is necessary to make informed decisions when conserving relevant habitats. This study evaluated and compared the potential for different interactions between climatic variables to describe the habitat preferences and the range of the Ladakh urial, a narrowly distributed sub-species of Ovis vignei, in the arid Himalayas. Habitat suitability models were created from spatially thinned presence-only occurrence data of 55 locations using a Maximum Entropy (Maxent) model. For this, we subdivided the modeled habitat into habitat categories with varying degrees of suitability. We identified a high cold precipitation to annual precipitation ratio typical of cold desert climates well suited to describe the highest quality habitat for urial. The inverse, low warm precipitation to annual precipitation ratio was found to better describe the urial’s range at the lower end of potential habitat. In this comparison, we observed that with the exclusion of unsuitable cold steppe habitat with a higher warm precipitation to annual precipitation ratio, we were able to refine the extent of this species range but at a tradeoff to the accurate description of high quality habitat. The results have implications for identifying areas for the conservation and management of the species in the high altitude rangelands of Ladakh.